Project | Theories of change for attainment-raising initiatives

About theories of change for attainment-raising initiatives

Academic achievement is the most important predictor of higher education progression (Crawford, 2014), but there are persistent equality gaps in GCSE attainment. The Office for Students therefore called on higher education providers to do more to raise the academic attainment of school students through widening participation activities. 

Our evidence review and typology of attainment-raising interventions found that few of these currently set out how they are expected to facilitate improvements in attainment. We therefore recommend that higher education providers develop Theories of Change for any planned attainment-raising activities.

We appointed Ipsos to develop theories of change for pre-16 attainment-raising initiatives for six higher education providers covering activities identified in our review.

Find out more about each and access each theory of change overview and diagram.

Background

There are persistent equality gaps in GCSE attainment: in the 2020/21 academic year, 30% of students eligible for free school meals achieved a grade 5 or above in English or maths GCSE, compared to 57% of non-free school meal students. The Office for Students has therefore emphasised the importance of focusing interventions on reducing pre-16 attainment gaps.

This project was a response to the Office for Students’ call for higher education providers to do more to raise academic attainment.